Distributed coincidence circuit



April 22, 1952 'c. E. WIEGAND ETAL DISTRIBUTED COINCIDENCE CIRCUIT Filed March 7, 1951 wow , INVENTORS. CLYDE E. W/EGAND OWE/V CHAMBERLAIN ATTORNEY.

Patented Apr. 22, 1952 a 2 593,943 v UNITED STATES PATENT Clyde E. Wiegand, Oakland, and Owen Chamber lain, Berkeley, Calif-. assiznors; to the, United States of'America as represented-b11111: United: States Atomic Energy Commission implication March 7, 1951,Serial1No.

6 .Clailns. (Cl. 25054.73);

This invention relates to an electronic colines-is-eqpal to 'thazt in theanodefline andinowas;a incidence circuit and more particularly to a cocontinuities in thevalue -of the-impedance incidence circuit based on distributed amplificawhich the waves are-*mcident; or tion. Another important object or the present: he:

Witlrirnprovementsniethodsand apparatus; vention is to provide a, mixen circuit icr for detecting; charged particies such apparatus input signals: having widely varying frequencies. has beqpmfi capable" of resolving times exceed, Other objects and advantageswill be- 'apparent ing -.that ;of the angriliary counting circuits used from the following descriptionmndrjaciaimsscona therewith, Resolving times-oi; the; qrder oif; sidered together with the accompanymgslciraw sec, have; been obtain d with tai t r 10 ing'inwhich-thereisillustrated atschemati'c wirs scintillation crystals thereby making it neces ins diagram or the inventionz sary that; he; co nting; circuits havea similar Referringto the, drawing in: detail; thrice resolving time The, present invention has; been terminals It, l2; and- 13 are provided found; capable; of a; resolving timeI 0f; 1osec for connecting a; pain or input signal; voltages; hen. use n cqnnec ip w th scin illa ion crysto the; ir uit- One such terminat I3 is con i d tecto s hotomu t l er; ube and dis-- c e to groundbyfl" d? i immmm flbuwd m fifiers- In. order o n cvidesuch a; x the input? voltages; 5 m eflt fifi o ing; ime neno nc pce c rcpitnaplurality t a smi sion i e s co n cted toeach oi-"thw tn ntasrid nver er. tub s. areemployed interother'terminals fihefllstsucll n connected in a ma n imil tt that; f di prises four series connected inductan ces i8; i1", tributed amplifiers, with" selected lumped con:- IB, and l9 and the; second; line; comprises-10%" stants and: providing separate signal n l; series connected inductances 21, 22, 23; *and ii to each or tlig cgntijol grid of th t b h -l In the particular embodiment oistha-i anyv principles of distributed amplification have been tion shown-in the drawing fourpentagri disclosed in British Pat nt N 4 0,552; t w ,9; 25 verter tubes 26; 21; 2-8; and 29 are utilized; with; Percival and in; the; article entitled Distributed the aforementioncd,transm t oll li e however; mplification appearin rin' the Proceedings of it will be apparent that; a greater OIfflQSSBPi ns-V that, R E vol 36,;page-956; (1.948) by Ginzton, ber of 'suchtubes-may be utilized:dependingrupon Hewlett, .Jasberg and Noe; thedegree-of amplification, desired. fThe; first; In utilizingtheprinciplesofdistributed amplii-r 30 control grids of'thd firsttandpthirdl' ubes t. fication in a. coincidence circuit, it has been found: 28) are-respectively connectedit amid-poi Tot. eces ary to, balance the; interelectrode cathe first and third inductance (2 2'3) '0 31 pacitances; of; the tubes for-the two circuits. A transmission line connected'j-to the second w simple means, for accomplishing" such balance: put terminal 12* while the firstvcontroll has been p vided by alternate connectionssbethe second andfourth tubes; (21; ZSJ are JteSI Q tween th controlgrids'and the twosignal chan-. tively. connected to. aymid point of the se nd; nelseswill bermorei fully: explained: hereinafter. and fourth inductances (11, is); either It thereiorean object. of the present inven mission line connected to the third jinpu tion to providea newuand improved coincidence minail I, Thesecond controkgridsof thc tubm circuit. are similarly connected iii a stag eredqor alter Another obiectofthe present inventionis to! natelmanner; that is; the secondcontrol provide; a wide-band coincidence circuithavingof the first and third; tubes: (28; 28')? arelre l aresoivingti meof the order-of lir isecond. tively connecteditota-mid-point,ot-the; fir nd: still ancther; object. ofthe t-tinventiontis to pro third inductances; (:16; 181) or; the transmission: videla;paiixoffibalanced gridilineszand an anode 5 lineconnected: tothe third; terminal H line with a plurality of converter tubes interthe secondlcontroilgrids ofthesecondan martin connectedbetweensuchlines. tubes (21; 29% are respectivelyf connected 1 Av fur-then object: of the present invention is mid-point; of==thesecond and'fourth indi cta touprovida staggered connections between the (22, 24) of the'transmission line-con'nctedgto controlugrid ofwthe tubes: and the grid lines so thesecond input terminal lZ- t fl net that the; capacitance from. grid to cathode is connections are necessary to assure albalanced equal for each grid: line. relationshipbetween each ofi: therin A still furtherubject of: the invention to sion lines with respect to the r-line; i i provide alcoincidnceicircuit -wherein thevelocity capacitance. 'm addition.gto the-i'oregot of; m traggling way t g id science requirement}torthe sridttmnsmiiisiona sister 44 .to the grid transmission it is necessary that each section of the line should have equal capacitance and, to accomplish this latter, four capacitors 3!, 32, 33, and 34 are provided and respectively connected between the first control and cathode of each of the tubes 26, 21, 28, and 29.

To provide a grid bias voltage for the tubes 26, 21, 28, and 29 a battery 38 is connected in parallel with a series connected potentiometer 31 and single throw switch 38. Since it is desired to impress a negative bias voltage, the positive terminal of the battery 36 is connected to the cathodes of the tubes, 26, 2l, 28, and 29' and to the grounded input terminal [3. The adjustable element of the potentiometer 31 is connected to the grounded terminal l3, through two by-pass capacitors M and 42 and to one end of each of two resistors 43 and 44. The resistor 43 is further connected to the grid transmission line connected to the input terminal H and the reline connected to the input terminal 12. Thus an adjustable negative bias voltage is provided for the control grids of the tubes 26, 21, 28, and 29.

.An anode transmission line is provided and comprises four series connected inductances 46, 41,48, end-d9. A mid-point of each of the inductances' 46, 47,158, and 19 is respectively connected to the anode of the tubes 23, 2?, 28, and 29. One end, of; such anode transmission line is connected to ian'outputterminal El through a coupling, capacitor 52a'nd the other end is connected to the'positive terminal of a conventional power supply 53 .by-means of a dropping resistor 54. Thus a suitable operating voltage is supplied ice the anodes of tubes 26, 21, 28, and 2%, since the negative terminal of the power supply 53 is connected to thegrounded cathodes of the tubes.

.The two'screengrids of each tube 26, 21, 28, and 29 are connected together within the tube envelope and are respectively connected externally to thegpositive terminal of the power supply-53 by four resistors 56, 51, 58, and 59. Four byrpass capacitors 6|, 62, 63, and 64 are respectively'connected from each external screen'grid connection'of the tubes 26, 21, 28, and 29 to the grounded cathode of the tubes.

.,;In-- constructing .the present invention in accordance with the foregoing description of corn nections, it is necessary toconsider several important'requirements of such a discriminator circult. For proper coincidence counting the circuit should-ordinarily have input circuits which are equivalent in all respects. Thus, as stated previously, the input capacitances of the two control grids of the selected converter tubes .26, 2?, 28, and 29 are not equal and their effectiveness in controlling the anode current is different; To

correct for the foregoing, the connections between suchcontrol grids and the input grid transmission lines are alternately staggered, as

' described above, and the capacitances are equalized by the; addition of capacitors'iil, 32, 33, and

34' having values substantially equal to the diiference between the grid to cathode capacitance of 'th'e two control grids. Thus it is clearly apparent that equivalent input circuits are provided to such an extent that the two may be interchanged'without affecting operation.

Inemploying the principles of distributed amplification-tome present invention, it is necessary" that the velocityoi the waves be equal on the grid transmission lines and also on the anode transmission line. It is also necessary that there shouldbeped scdntinuities in the value of the applied at the input terminals H and I2.

4 impedance upon which the traveling waves are incident. Neglecting losses, it is well known that the velocity of propagation of the traveling-waves;

and

It will be readily apparent that Za1=Za2 the circuit is symmetrical and thaltffit is' not necesg sary that Za1=Zp. The values of Zgl, Zg2, and Zp may be determined, for optimum operation,

from the output impedance of t' h'e'devices working into the grid lines and the inp'ut impedance of the device to be driven fronr thea-node line. Knowing such values of impedance, the interelectrode capacitances of the tube tel-be used, and'the foregoing relationships therebetween-,- tlie values of the inductances may be readily determined. The coil constants for such inductanees may then be determined by using formulae, to befound in any standard handbook on filter networks, for m-derived T section filter networks. Having thus established the values of the elements of the transmission lines of the circuit, it remains but to establish that the resistors 43 and 44 connecting the bias voltage to the grid lines should have the value of the impedance of such lines and that the resistance 54 connecting the positive terminal of the power supply 53 to the anode line have the value of the characteristic impedance of such line. The foregoing requirements should be carried out substantially as set forth'to avoid the occurrence of reflected voltage waves along the lines.

Now consider the operation ply 53 energized and the potentiomet'entl ad should be sufficient to maintain the tubes in a nonconducting state when no signalvoltag es are It will then be readily apparent that the tubes 26, 21, 28, and 29 will conduct only at such time as a positive pulse of voltage is impressed simultaneously at each of the two control grids of each tube. In such manner an output pulse of voltage occurs at the output terminal 5i as'an-indication of coincidence.

As has been stated previously, it has been'found that by utilizing the foregoing circuit' that a resolving time of 10* seconds has been attained which is substantially better than the capabilities of present coincidence circuits. It will be readwide range and that, as has been set forth we of the circuit, as I described in the foregoing, with the power supviously, the number of converter tubes illustrated in the drawing is merely representative and should in no manner be construed as limitmg.

While the salient features of this invention have been described in detail with respect to one embodiment it will, of course, be apparent that numerous modifications may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention and it is therefore not desired to limit the invention to the exact details shown except insofar as they may be defined in the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a coincidence circuit of the class described, the combination comprising a plurality of vacuum tubes each having at least an anode, two control grids, and a cathode, a first plurality of series-connected inductances having a tap of each respectively connected to one of the control grids of each of said tubes, a second plurality of series-connected inductances having a tap of each respectively connected to the remaining control grids of said tubes, a third plurality of series-connected inductances having a tap of each respectively connected to the anodes of said tubes, means for impressing a negative bias voltage on the control grids of said tubes, means for impressing an operating voltage across said tubes, and separate means connected to said first and second series of inductances for providing an input thereto.

2. In a coincidence circuit of the class described, the combination comprising a plurality of vacuum tubes each having at least an anode, a first control grid, a second control grid, and a cathode, a first plurality of series-connected inductances having a tap of each respectively and alternately connected to said first and second control grids, a second plurality of series-com nected inductances having a tap of each respectively and alternately connected to the remaining of said first and second control grids, a third plurality of series-connected inductances having a tap of each respectively connected to the anodes of said tubes, means connected to said control grids for impressing a negative bias voltage thereon, means connected to said anodes for impressing an operating voltage, and means connected to said first and second series of inductances for providing a connection for separate positive input voltages whereby an output voltage is developed at one end of said third series of inductances when both grids of said tubes are simultaneously driven positive.

3. In a coincidence circuit of the class described, the combination comprising a plurality of similar vacuum tubes each having at least an anode, a first control grid, a second control grid, and a, cathode, a first plurality of series-connected inductances having a mid-point tap of each respectively and alternately connected to said first and second control grids, a second plurality of series-connected inductances having a mid-point tap of each respectively and alternately connected to the remaining of said first and second control grids, a plurality of capacitors connected one between the first control grid and cathode of each of said tubes and having a value substantially equal to the diiference between the control grid to cathode capacitance of said first and second control grids, a third plurality of series-connected inductances having a mid-point tap of each respectively connected to the anodes of said tubes, means impressing a negative bias voltage on said first and second control grids, means impressing an operating voltage across said tubes, and separate means connected to said first and second series of inductances for providing an input connection thereto.

4. In a coincidence circuit of the class described, the combination comprising a plurality of similar vacuum tubes each having at least an anode, a first control grid, a second control grid. and a cathode, a first plurality of series-connected inductances having a mid-point tap of each respectively and alternately connected to said first and second control grids, a second plurality of series-connected inductances having a mid-point tap of each respectively and alternately connected to the remaining of said first and second control grids, a plurality of capacitors connected one between the first control grid and cathode of each of said tubes and having a value substantially equal to the diiference between the control grid to cathode capacitance of said first and second control grids, a third plurality of series-connected inductances having a mid-point tap of each respectively connected to the anodes of said tubes, means connected at one end of said first and second series of inductances for impressing a negative bias voltage on the control grids of said tubes, means connected at the other end of said first and second series of inductances for providing separate input connections thereto, means connected at one end of said third series of inductances for impressing operating voltages at the anodes of said tubes, and means connected at the other end of said third series of inductances for providing an output connection for supplying voltage when both grids of said tubes are simultaneously driven positive.

5. A coincidence circuit of claim 4 wherein the values of inductance of the first and second series of inductances are substantially equal and have a value determined by the interelectrode capacitance of said tubes, the desired frequency passband, and desired impedance of an m-derived filter network.

6. A coincidence circuit of claim 5, wherein the velocity of wave propagation along the three series of inductances is substantially equal.

CLYDE E. WIEGAND. OWEN CHAMBERLAIN.

Distributed Amplification, by Edward L. Ginzton et Free. I. R. vol. 36, No. 8, August 1948. 

